Chelsea Manning released from jail two months after refusing to testify about WikiLeaks

Chelsea Manning says she will continue to refuse to testify about WikiLeaks. (Markus Schreiber / AP)

Chelsea Manning was released from jail Thursday after 62 days, her legal team announced.

The former Army intelligence analyst was being held at the William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center in Alexandria, Va., after she refused to testify in front of a grand jury about her involvement with WikiLeaks.

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Manning’s release comes as the grand jury’s term expires, making it a technicality, but her legal team said that she has already been subpoenaed again and is expected to appear before a different grand jury again in a week.

“Chelsea will continue to refuse to answer questions, and will use every available legal defense to prove to District Judge Trenga that she has just cause for her refusal to give testimony," her team said in a statement.

If she does refuse to testify again, Manning could be held in contempt and jailed again.

Manning, who served seven years behind bars for espionage for leaking classified information, including a video of an American helicopter shooting at Iraqi citizens, before having her sentence commuted by former President Barack Obama, has been tied to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s recent arrest on April 11 at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

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Prosecutors allege that Assange conspired with Manning to gain access to classified information from Department of Defense computers in 2010.

Earlier this week, Manning’s team filed a motion that she be released due to the fact that she will “never be convinced to cooperate with the grand jury,” thus making her imprisonment pointless.

“After two months of confinement, and using every legal mechanism available so far, I can — without any hesitation — state that nothing will convince me to testify before this or any other grand jury for that matter," Manning said in a statement.

“I believe this grand jury seeks to undermine the integrity of public discourse with the aim of punishing those who expose any serious, ongoing, and systemic abuses of power by this government, as well as the rest of the international community."

Manning was held in solitary confinement for weeks before being moved back to general population in early April.